title: Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?
abstract: Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short interval, as has happened only five times in the past 540 million years or so. Biologists now suggest that a sixth mass extinction may be under way, given the known species losses over the past few centuries and millennia. Here we review how differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence our understanding of the current extinction crisis. Our results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record, highlighting the need for effective conservation measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. barnosky@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Barnosky
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Matzke
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomiya
authors.forename: Guinevere O U
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Wogan
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Swartz
authors.forename: Tiago B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Quental
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Jenny L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: McGuire
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Lindsey
authors.forename: Kaitlin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mersey
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ferrer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D018534:Earth, Planet; D056727:Endangered Species / Q000266:history / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans